Author: admin

Actually, I’m not so much picking the winners as picking the books I want to win… I realize that my tastes and those of the voting public are very different, in general, but what the hell, let’s Rock The Vote! Speaking of which, to take my word for it and go vote yourself, check out http://www.eisnervote.com/ only comics industry professionals are eligible, but chances are you’re a comics industry professional, so go for it!

Best Short Story
“Book,” by Yuichi Yokoyama, in New Engineering (PictureBox)
“At Loose Ends,” by Lewis Trondheim, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)
“Mr. Wonderful,” by Dan Clowes, in New York Times Sunday Magazine
“Town of Evening Calm,” by Fumiyo Kouno, in Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Last Gasp)
“Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks?” by Paul Karasik, in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! (Fantagraphics)
“Young Americans,” by Emile Bravo, in Mome #8 (Fantagraphics)

Despite some truly solid (and surprising) selections in this category, Town of Evening Calm is both excellent and Important thanks to its weighty insights into tragedy and human nature, and general under-ratedness. A category this strong doesn’t come along too often and anything here probably could have taken this category, it’s all fantastic stuff. That said, I’d be surprised if Karasik’s Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks doesn’t win.

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Amelia Rules! #18: “Things I Cannot Change,” by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Delilah Dirk and the Treasure of Constantinople, by Tony Cliff (self-published)
Johnny Hiro #1, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Justice League of America #11: “Walls,” by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha (DC)
Sensational Spider-Man Annual: “To Have or to Hold,” by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (Marvel)

Not to diss the excellent Johnny Hiro #1, but Fraction and Larroca brought their a-game to this one, and it shows. This is also something of a protest vote, considering Casanova wasn’t nominated for anything… To be fair, I haven’t read Tony Cliff’s mini.

Best Continuing Series
The Boys, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson (Dynamite)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
The Spirit, by Darwyn Cooke (DC)
Y: The Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, and Jose Marzan, Jr. (Vertigo/DC)

I guess my manga fandom is showing here, but despite solid efforts from Ennis and Cooke, there’s one book that gets everyone at the store genuinely excited when it shows up at the store, and that’s Monster. It’s an amazingly well put-together comic, and the number one story I’d recommend to someone who thinks that they aren’t a “manga fan” now that Dragon Head is over. Actually, that said, Monster is better-drawn and more accessible, I think, than Dragon Head, so it’s got that going for it too. This is going to be a tough category…

Best Limited Series
Atomic Robo, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegender (Red 5 Comics)
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, by Peter David, Robin Furth, and Jae Lee (Marvel)
Nightly News, by Jonathan Hickman (Image)
Parade (with Fireworks), by Michael Cavallaro (Shadowline/Image)
The Umbrella Academy, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá (Dark Horse)

Surprise hit of the year. I’ve only read the first few Atomic Robo and they were good, but Umbrella Academy takes it by virtue of being both surprisingly good and having a great ending.

Best New Series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, by Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty, and Andy Owens (Dark Horse)
Immortal Iron Fist, by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and others (Marvel)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
The Infinite Horizon, by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto (Image)
Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra (Vertigo/DC)

This was actually a tough one for me, because Infinite Horizon and Iron Fist are still in my to-read pile, and Buffy Season 8 is shockingly good (and sells bucketloads). But Johnny Hiro really is a solid read, and I’m glad to see an entirely indy ongoing single-issue series do well, so it’s getting a ‘political’ vote from me…

Best Publication for Kids
Amelia Rules! and Amelia Rules! Funny Stories, by Jimmy Gownley (Renaissance)
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, edited by Jeremy Barlow (Dark Horse)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, by Peter Sis (Frank Foster Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Yotsuba&!, by Kiyohiko Azuma (ADV)

No contest.

Best Publication for Teens
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Mighty Skullboy Army, by Jacob Chabot (Dark Horse)
The Annotated Northwest Passage, by Scott Chantler (Oni)
PX! Book One: A Girl and Her Panda, by Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson (Shadowline/Image)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)

Aw man, that’s really tough. First off, I think it’s important to note that three of the entries here are historical fiction, which is probably a rarity in a “best publication for teens” category. Also, the lack of Naruto is sort of galling. All of that aside, for me it came down to Laika, Northwest Passage, and Satchel Paige, all of which are really great books that I would recommend. The tie-breaker was that I voted for the Canadian book, because that’s how I roll.

Also, I wouldn’t normally take time out to slam a book, but I’m going to make a special allowance here: PX! is a truly, truly awful book, and it is downright depressing that it has received an Eisner nomination.

Best Humor Publication
Dwight T. Albatross’s The Goon Noir, edited by Matt Dryer (Dark Horse)
Johnny Hiro, by Fred Chao (AdHouse)
Lucha Libre, by Jerry Frissen, Bill, Gobi, Fabien M., Nikola Witko, Hervé Tanquelle et al. (Image)
Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories, by Nicholas Gurewitch (Dark Horse)
Wonton Soup, by James Stokoe (Oni)

Man, I know the mainstream comics contingent is all over The Goon, which is a solid read, but Perry Bible Fellowship is just so, so good that I can’t imagine anything even coming close. Well, except for next year when Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight takes the category in a landslide…

Best Anthology
Best American Comics 2007, edited by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Chris Ware (Houghton Mifflin)
5, by Gabriel Bá, Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Vasilis Lolos, and Rafael Grampa (self-published)
Mome, edited by Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened, edited by Jason Rodriguez (Villard)
24Seven, vol. 2, edited by Ivan Brandon (Image)

Everything I want from an anthology, even when I’m disappointed with or confused by their choices I can still respect them, and several volumes of this were absolutely top-notch. Add Mome to your purchases today.

Best Digital Comic
The Abominable Charles Christopher, by Karl Kerschl, www.abominable.transmission-x.com
Billy Dogma, Immortal, by Dean Haspiel, www.deanhaspiel.com/immortal.html
The Process, by Joe Infurnari, www.theprocesscomic.com
PX! By Manny Trembley and Eric A. Anderson, www.pandaxpress.com
Sugarshock!, by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon, http://www.myspace.com/darkhorsepres…m=1&storynum=2

I can’t even conceive of how Joss Whedon will lose this one, and I’m kind of amazed that the print collection of Perry Bible Fellowship could be nominated for a great book, but not as a ‘digital comic’. That and fucking “Panda Extreme” shows up again, tunder’n jaysus. I’m writing in Achewood, by Chris Onstad for what I hope are obvious reasons, no disrespect to my nominated friends.

Best Reality-Based Work
Laika, by Nick Abadzis (First Second)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, by Ann Marie Fleming (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm, by Percy Carey and Ronald Wimberly (Vertigo/DC)
White Rapids, by Pascal Blanchet (Drawn & Quarterly)

Uh, heh, despite still liking Laika and Satchel Paige… White Rapids is really, really good. Truly beautiful and unique, delivering a wholly conceived experience to the reader. Most interestingly, White Rapids is one of my husband’s fav comics from 2007 as well, he took to it surprisingly quickly and thought it was fantastic. He’s not a big comics reader, but I do think it’s interesting to see what he reacts to and why…

Best Graphic Album—New
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Bookhunter, by Jason Shiga (Sparkplug Books)
Essex County, vols. 1-2: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories, by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Exit Wounds, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)
Percy Gloom, by Cathy Malkasian (Fantagraphics)

Top notch. I liked Lemire’s work a great deal, and Shiga’s book is pretty fantastic as well, but I just think Exit Wounds is really thoroughly conceived and executed, and it spoke to me in a way that the other books didn’t…

Still, congrats to my friend Jeff Lemire for what’s probably the most prestigious award nomination on the list, and on his second and third books ever!

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Agents of Atlas Hardcover, by Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk, and Kris Justice (Marvel)
Gødland Celestial Edition, by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli (Image)
James Sturm’s America: God, Gold, and Golems, by James Sturm (Drawn & Quarterly)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen (Archaia)
Super Spy, by Matt Kindt (Top Shelf)

While this is either the second or third edition of some of this material, I thought that this collection was surprisingly underrated when it was released this year. Sturm’s The Golem’s Mighty Swing is a fantastic work, and it and the other two stories collected here are some pretty amazing comics material… No disrespect intended to any of the other nominees, but I think Sturm’s work is really a cut above.

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Strips
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, by Winsor McCay (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, vol. 1, by Milton Caniff (IDW)
Little Sammy Sneeze, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press)
Popeye, vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down, by E. C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, by Frank King (Sunday Press)

While the sheer size and overall quality of Sundays with Walt and Skeezix is truly impressive and will likely make it a shoe-in for the award, I think the Little Sammy Sneeze collection is actually a better book. It’s complete, which is a point in its favour, and its production is unique offering more than just a collection of the work, but insight into the time and world in which the strips were published through other period-appropriate strips also published in the book (it even comes with a decorative tissue-box cover!) Granted, on that front the superlative amount of work going into D+Q’s Walt and Skeezix collection should have made it the winner as each volume contains more than 90 pages of extra material, but somehow it didn’t make the nom list… I feel like these awards really do come down to having someone on the nomination committee to champion a work…

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel)
Apollo’s Song, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
The Completely MAD Don Martin, by Don Martin (Running Press)
Daredevil Omnibus, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (Marvel)
I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks (Fantagraphics)

Easy win.

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Aya, by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Obrerie (Drawn & Quarterly)
Garage Band, by Gipi (First Second)
I Killed Adolf Hitler, by Jason (Fantagraphics)
The Killer, by Matz and Luc Jacamon (Archaia)

Man, this is all good stuff. Like, really good. I was really tempted not to pick Garage Band because the English edition is so much smaller than the European edition, and consequently loses ‘something’ in the reduction in size (in my humble opinion), but it’s still excellent so I’ll try not to nitpick it out of the running. But honestly, this book deserved to be printed at its original size… hopefully as First Second matures they can go back and do ‘special editions’ of some of their earlier works in something approaching the European format…

I also recommend you run right out and read Aya which is an excellent, excellent read. Jason’s I Killed Adolf Hitler is also a career highpoint, but I feel like everyone should be buying his stuff anyway… Geez, tough category. Particularly since The Arrival will probably take it…

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan
The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories, by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
MW, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama (PictureBox)
Tekkonkinkreet: Black & White, by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz)
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, by Fumiyo Kouno (Last Gasp)

As soon as I saw Tekkon Kinkreet I knew I’d have to pick it, it’s a truly phenomenal edition of the material with all of the colour pages restored, additional art and illustrations, a superior book-size, and a bunch of extras. Oh, and the graphic novel itself is fantastic.

But all of these books are fucking great, and excellent reminder of what a great time it is to be a manga reader in North America. All of these are worth your time and money, no lie. Run out and buy them all from the magical store that has them all in stock at once. Or, you know, The Beguiling.

Best Writer
Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel)
James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)
Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC),
Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)
Brian Wood, DMZ, Northlanders (Vertigo/DC); Local (Oni)

Well, the book I enjoyed most up there is Criminal, so 2007’s best writer must have been Brubaker. Awards are weird.

Best Writer/Artist
Jeff Lemire, Essex County: Tales from the Farm/Ghost Stories (Top Shelf)
Rutu Modan, Exit Wounds (Drawn & Quarterly)
Shaun Tan, The Arrival (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)
Fumi Yoshinaga, Flower of Life; The Moon and Sandals (Digital Manga)

Uh… yeah. I mean, everyone else here is clearly very talented, but… Chris Ware?! Yikes. I also think it’s kind of weird that Darwyn Cooke didn’t get a nom in this category for The Spirit…

Best Writer/Artist—Humor
Kyle Baker, The Bakers: Babies and Kittens (Image)
Fred Chao, Johnny Hiro (AdHouse)
Brandon Graham, King City (Tokyopop); Multiple Warheads (Oni)
Eric Powell, The Goon (Dark Horse)
James Stokoe, Wonton Soup (Oni)

I wonder if Kyle Baker and Eric Powell will cancel each other out? Anyway, Brandon Graham totally hit this year, and his stuff is fun, funny, and sexy. That said I just gotta bitch here: How the fuck did Mal not get nominated for Scott Pilgrim? That shit is retarded. I’d demand a write-in but that would likely be pointless. I almost, almost, want to go and check to see who was on the nominating committee, but I’ll try not to be that petty or vengeful. But seriously, what the fuck?

Outbursts like this are why I’ll likely never be an Eisner judge. I’d rather keep it real though. Or something. Christ, this is a bad idea isn’t it? Oh well. Too late to turn back now.

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
Steve Epting/Butch Guice/Mike Perkins, Captain America (Marvel)
Pia Guerra/Jose Marzan, Jr., Y: The Last Man (Vertical/DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Takeshi Obata, Death Note, Hikaru No Go (Viz)
Ethan Van Sciver, Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps (DC)

That’s just a weird choice, so what the hell… it’s not like he’s not incredibly talented…

Actually, it’s at times like these I don’t envy the folks in charge of the Eisner Awards, trying to determine what is or isn’t eligible across a spectrum of comics projects so broad that most classifications are essentially meaningless…

Best Painter or Multimedia Artist (interior art)
Ann-Marie Fleming, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group)
Eric Powell, The Goon: Chinatown (Dark Horse)
Bryan Talbot, Alice in Sunderland (Dark Horse)
Ben Templesmith, Fell (Image); 30 Days of Night: Red Snow; Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse (IDW)

Props to Templesmith, he’s a talented guy, but it’s rare that you get to describe a book as a “Tour-de-Force” and Alice in Sunderland totally qualifies. If you’ve got thirty bucks burning a hole in your pocket, it’s worth owning.

Best Cover Artist
John Cassaday, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Lone Ranger (Dynamite)
James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Process Recess 2; Superior Showcase 2 (AdHouse)
J. G. Jones, 52 (DC)
Jae Lee, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Jim Lee, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (DC); World of Warcraft (WildStorm/DC)

All of these fellows are quite talented, turning out some solid cover art, but how can you not love what James Jean is doing…?

Best Coloring
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Steve Hamaker, Bone, vols. 5 and 6 (Scholastic); Shazam: Monster Society of Evil (DC)
Richard Isanove, Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born (Marvel)
Ronda Pattison, Atomic Robo (Red 5 Comics)
Dave Stewart, BPRD, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cut, Hellboy, Lobster Johnson, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); The Spirit (DC)
Alex Wald, Shaolin Cowboy (Burlyman)

Amelia Rules for best colouring? Are you serious? It’s not bad, but… wow, could not have seen that coming. Meanwhile, Dave Stewart is just awesome, working in a number of different styles and moods depending on the book. he works on. Not to take anything away from the other artist, but Stewart’s just top-notch. My second-choice would go to Hamaker who I think started out awesome on Bone, and has only gotten better with every book.

…and I didn’t pick a picture of Stewart winning the award in 2006 as any sort of justification for him winning in 2007, it’s just the only picture of him I could find online. Although, it is a pretty good justification…

Best Lettering
Jared K. Fletcher, Catwoman, The Spirit (DC); Sentences: Life of MF Grimm (Vertigo/DC)
Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
Todd Klein, Justice, Simon Dark (DC); Fables, Jack of Fables, Crossing Midnight (Vertigo/DC); League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (WildStorm/DC); Nexus (Rude Dude)
Lewis Trondheim, “At Loose Ends,” Mome 7 & 8 (Fantagraphics)
Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #18 (Acme Novelty)

Okay, Gownley for best lettering too? I know this is going to look like I’m attacking him or his work, and I’m not, but sometimes having someone pulling for your book on the nominating committee isn’t necessarily a good thing… The nominations just end up looking strange when someone decides that they like your book SO MUCH that they get it nominated in every category it’s eligible for. Anyway, whatever, please don’t send hatemail. But yeah, it just looks weird to me.

But then I’m the kind of asshole that wants to see Chris Ware get the best lettering award again, so I can be safely ignored.

Special Recognition
Chuck BB, Black Metal (artist, Oni)
Matt Silady, The Homeless Channel (writer/artist, AiT/PlanetLar)
Jamie Tanner, The Aviary (writer/artist, AdHouse)
James Vining, First in Space (writer/artist, Oni)

On my ballot I selected Chuck BB, and he’s a solid choice but the more I think about it the more I realize that Jamie Tanner is doing something really different with his work, and it’s kind of unsettling and it has a lot of potential. I feel like he probably needs the special recognition a little more than the other guys…

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Comic Art #9, edited by Todd Hignite (Buenaventura Press)
Comic Foundry, edited by Tim Leong (Comic Foundry)
The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael (www.comicsreporter.com)
Newsarama, produced by Matt Brady and Michael Doran (www.newsarama.com)

Although I didn’t like the cover, I think there’s just a consistent vision and execution with Comic Art that’s really, really impressive, and aspirational. I feel like it’s perhaps a little too esoteric at times and seeing where the magazine goes with the next issue will be very interesting. I also think the Journal has a lot of potential, if it can just get its shit together… Honestly, the elephant in the room is The Comics Reporter, because Spurgeon is doing some amazing, amazing stuff. I feel if that site was distilled down to a 300 page glossy magazine every year it’d be no contest (actually, that’s not a bad idea). But it’s not, and so…

Photo of Comic Art publisher Alvin Buenaventura at San Diego Comic Con 2007.

Best Comics-Related Book
The Art of P. Craig Russell, edited by Joe Pruett (Desperado)
The Artist Within, by Greg Preston (Dark Horse)
Manga: The Complete Guide, by Jason Thompson (Del Rey Manga)
Meanwhile . . . A Biography of Milton Caniff, by R. C. Harvey (Fantagraphics)
Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, by Douglas Wolk (Da Capo Press)
Understanding Manga and Anime, by Robin Brenner (Libraries Unlimited/Greenwood Publishing)

This is a really, really tough category to pick because these books are miles apart from one another in terms of aims and production. It’s apples to oranges here, and so I just picked the only one I’ve read all the most of so far. Which isn’t to say that Jason Thompson’s massive manga tome isn’t deserving of a win; it’s awesome and should get all kinds of awards. But R.C. Harvey’s Milton Caniff biography is an intimidating achievement, a 900 page biography of a cartooning great that I am never going to find time to read in my entire life. Or an art book, or a photo book, or a couple books of essays. Maybe the medium is big enough for a couple of sub-categories here?

Best Publication Design
(The Complete) Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, designed by Ulrich Merkl (Ulrich Merkl)
Complete Terry and the Pirates, designed by Dean Mullaney (IDW)
Heroes, vol. 1, designed by John Roshell/Comicraft (WildStorm/DC)
Little Sammy Sneeze, designed by Philippe Ghielmetti (Sunday Press)
Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer (AdHouse)
Sundays with Walt and Skeezix, designed by Chris Ware (Sunday Press)

I honestly think Process Recess 2 is a nicer book than the big Walt and Skeezix. I know this is heresy, but PR2 is inviting, Sundays is intimidating, and that’s where the break is. Of course, both Rarebit Fiend and Sammy Sneeze are both beautiful, beautiful books that should win awards as well. We’re lucky to live in a time when such care and attention is placed on making great books look beautiful…!

—

…and we’re done! How wrong did I get it? Feel free to let me have it in the comments section, I can take it.

– Christopher

Photo credits: Top photo of Will Eisner from http://www.montillapictures.com/. Achewood strip from http://www.achewood.com. Photo of Ed Brubaker from http://centralcrimezone.blogspot.com/2008/03/ed-brubaker-interview-by-duane.html. Chris Ware self-portrait by Chris Ware. Photo of Brandon Graham by ?? (I can’t find the attribution, contact me if this is your photo.) Photo of Takeshi Obata from http://student.nu.ac.th/deathnote/Magaka.html. Photo of Bryan Talbot by Christopher Butcher. Photo of Dave Stewart from Silver Bullet Comics, http://www.silverbulletcomics.com/news/story.php?a=542. Photo of Todd Klein by Todd Klein. Jamie Tanner @ TCAF, photo by Tugboat Press, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tugboatpress/. Photo of Alvin Buenaventura by Christopher Butcher. All book covers copyright © and trademark their respective owners.